British Airways has today revealed some of its fastest growing travel routes for small-medium businesses (SME) over the last year. The 2018 data suggests that British SMEs looked beyond traditional markets to do business with routes across South America, Africa and Europe all featuring.
The airline’s top 25 fastest growing routes include Santiago with 18% more bookings than 2017 – based on bookings through its SME loyalty programme On Business – suggesting SMEs are looking beyond traditional markets to do business. Equally surprising was On Business bookings between Gatwick and JFK in New York rising 10% on what is traditionally a leisure route.
This trend was mirrored in Europe, with On Business bookings to Keflavik, Iceland up 39% and Krakow, Poland up 12% indicating that SMEs are looking to even more locations to travel for work. Meanwhile, strong business links between the UK and Abuja and Lagos – both in Nigeria – saw SME travel on these routes rise 10%.
Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, said: “We fly to over 200 destinations around the world. While booking to our traditional business routes remain strong, it’s interesting to see that SMEs, through our On Business programme, are looking to different global destinations to travel to for work.”
James Ashton-Bell, CBI Head of International Trade, said: “2018 was a great year for UK exports, with new records set for innovative British goods and services reaching overseas destinations. Small and scale-up firms are powering this drive, breaking into new markets and discovering that demand for British expertise is ever-growing.”
British Airways is dedicated to helping promote business growth through its On Business loyalty programme. This enables companies to collect On Business points each time a Member of their company travels. Points can be spent on Reward Flights or on a cabin upgrade. On Business travellers still collect Avios, if they are a Member of the British Airways Executive Club alongside the company collecting On Business Points.
